Fasting Diet for Weight Loss, its Benefits and Downsides

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Fasting diet for weight loss seems to be one of the most popular diet trends today. But in spite of its current fame, fasting has been practiced for millenia for different purposes. (It can even improve your memory, according to Intermittent Fasting: Not Just for Weight Loss?) Because of its popularity with Hollywood stars, people have begun to think that intermittent fasting for weight loss is better than ordinary diet and exercise approaches. It isn’t. It can be a safe way to slim down (if done right!). But it doesn’t really provide greater results than other weight loss methods.

How to use fasting diet for weight loss

Now there are many different ways that people use intermittent fasting diet for weight loss. Here are two of the most famous approaches.

24-hour Fasts: This protocol popularized by Brad Pilon in his book Eat, Stop, Eat. (He really introduced me to the science behind intermittent fasting for fat loss). Brad’s method is very straightforward – just eat nothing for two non-consecutive 24-hour periods every week.

16/8: This fasting protocol requires you to make your ‘eating window’ shorter every day so that you are fasting for 16 hours and eating for eight hours. For many people, this means that breakfast begins at noon or 1 p.m. before they stop eating at 8 or 9 p.m. every day.

Regardless of which method you select, there are always three components to fat loss that people often ignore when they begin fasting for weight loss. Here’s how they could influence your results of intermittent fasting for weight loss.

You have to keep a calorie deficit

At its simplest level, intermittent fasting dieting for weight loss requires prolonged periods of starving. And when you are eating, you can eat as usual and not worry about eating less to make a caloric decrease. Here’s a real example:
Ordinary dieting approach: You burn 1750 calories every day and consume 1250 calories every day to make a 500/day calorie deficit. When the week ends, you will have an overall deficiency of 3500 calories. It gives you nearly 1 pound of fat loss each week.

Intermittent fasting method

You burn 1750 calories each day and, instead of consuming less food every day, you opt to fast for two non-consecutive 24-hour periods during the week. The remaining days of the week you eat as much food as your organism requires (1750 calories/day). This creates a weekly calorie deficiency of 3500 calories, which gives you nearly 1 pound of weight loss every week.

You need to control yourself

Self-control is necessary during the times of fasting and not fasting. Calorically rewarding yourself for a successful fast counteracts what you want to achieve. Pilon advises, “When you stop fasing, you must act like that you didn’t fast at all. No compensation, no reward, no special way of eating, no special shakes, drinks or pills”. This is even harder than it seems, but necessary for your fat loss success. Fasting for some hours does not allows you to eat anything you want in any amounts that you want.

You need to be consistent

Consistency is the trump card for stable weight loss success. You can’t fast for some days, then change it to a low carb diet for a week, then return to fasting or a high carb method. The people that are most successful in fasting diet for excess weight loss make it a long-term method for slimming down and keeping their weight. It’s not a quick remedy to shed excess pounds quickly. The more consistently that you fast (not the length of the real fast, but the days, weeks, months on which you do intermittent fasting), the more advantages you will get. As time goes on, your organism will have the possibility to ramp up the needed enzymes and pathways to increase weight loss during your fasted state.

So, should you fast?

Fasting for slimming down is effective, but many other methods work well too. No dietary method is magic. Some studies say that a very low carb diet provides the exact same advantages of fasting. Without requiring you to starve yourself. If you have find yourself binging after a fast or if you get shaky and light-headed during fasting (signs of hypoglycemia), maybe it isn’t a good way for you. Understand your organism and choose the appropriate diet plan wisely.